Summary

The article discusses the challenges and strategies of writing on Medium, emphasizing the importance of improving writing skills, studying successful writers and publications, embracing rejection as a learning tool, adopting a lifestyle that fuels writing, and avoiding time-wasting activities like follow-for-follow.

Abstract

The author of the article, who maintains a day job in IT, shares personal insights on writing for Medium while dealing with the reality of earning minimal income from it. Despite the financial aspect, the author is passionate about writing and views it as a profound way of life and emotional expression. The article provides advice on how to get published in major Medium publications by studying successful pieces, accepting rejection as a motivator for improvement, and adapting one's lifestyle to become more observant and inspired. The author also warns against engaging in unproductive practices like clap-for-clap and follow-for-follow schemes, which do not contribute to genuine readership.

Opinions

The author believes that writers should not solely rely on Medium for income but rather focus on the craft and joy of writing.
It is the writer's responsibility, not Medium's or the publication's, to improve their writing to a publishable standard.
Rejection by publications should be seen as an opportunity for growth and a sign to refine one's writing.
The author suggests that living life with the intention of writing about it can lead to more material and better articles.
Writers should analyze what successful publications are looking for and tailor their submissions accordingly.
The author criticizes the practice of exchanging claps and follows for the sake of inflating metrics without genuine engagement.

Writing for Cents Will Not Stop Me From Writing

And It Shouldn’t Stop You Either

Photo taken by Nick Morrison for Unsplash

Well, I know that everybody here on Medium is hoping to make lots of money fast. There are very few people that write articles just for the sake of writing.

I will not lie. I love writing, but I also need to pay the bills. Lucky for me, I did not quit my job as an IT professional from 9-to-5.

It’s not Medium’s problem that we earn cents. And for sure it’s not the publication’s problem either. It’s our problem. We are not good enough. We don’t write well enough.

I have always thought writing is more than just writing. It’s a mindset, a way of living life, a way of transferring emotions in written words.

I’ve been blogging for about 10 years now and I’ve made a few bucks from Google Adsense. I did things differently back then. I won by promoting advertorials and doing affiliate marketing.

I recently decided to switch to Medium and conquer the world of writing.

Below I write some advice I would give to myself, being in the same situation as you.

Study other writers and publications

To submit articles to big publications, you need to discover the proper way to pitch your work to get published. It’s not like someone has a grudge on you. Editors have limited time and publications publish only a few articles each day or week, compared to what is sent to them.

It’s like competing with 1000 people and being sad that you did not reach the top 50.

Do a favor to both yourself, and the publications, and read the articles they publish first. Next, figure out the reasons why these articles got accepted. Maybe you are using a wrong article structure, or maybe the writing style isn’t suitable for them. Or maybe your article is just mediocre.

Don’t hate rejection

Embrace rejection. It’s not helpful to get all your articles published and not know what you are doing wrong. Rejection makes you want to do things better.

Rejection should motivate you to work harder and achieve the things you desire. Life is full of rejections, anyway.

Don’t expect to earn things the easy way. Personally, I have to struggle a lot in order to get things done. And struggling is a good thing if you do it right. Just focus more on transmitting and less on the writing process itself.

Mind Cafe has rejected all my 4 articles submitted to them.

Stephen Moore didn’t publish any of the articles I’ve submitted for The Post Grad Survival Guide and left me notes telling me I might be luckier next time. I felt like Mario when he repeatedly found out that Princess Peach was in another Castle.

Yes, I got a little frustrated. But it’s my fault, not his. I am not writing well enough at the moment.

Live as if you had to write everything you do

I discovered that to write one article a day, I needed to change the way I live. During the day, I take tons of notes on the phone and save a lot of drafts.

In order to achieve this, I needed to achieve a new mindset. I started to pay attention to everything that happened to me during the day and tried to observe little details. I let myself be inspired by everything that happened to me. I think writing is more about mood and mindset and less about writing. With the proper setup, writing will be just the way you express what you feel.

If you were to write a lot, you would need interesting subjects, right? What’s better than to write about experiences in a personal matter?

Discover individual recipes for success

Study the articles curated in the publications that reject you and find out what they publish the most. Maybe they are just tired of tips and tricks articles. Maybe they prefer articles with powerful quotes or career advice. Figure this out before you resubmit to them.

Do you know what type of content gets published often in a certain publication? Why don’t you know? How are you going to get published if you are always writing about unsuitable topics?

Stop wasting time and energy on clap-for-clap and follow-for-follow

Didn’t you figure this out yet? Almost every person from Facebook groups is interested in promoting their own pieces. They don’t read your articles too often, but this does not stop them clap.

Well, don’t just take this for granted, test for yourself. Publish the same article repeatedly on all the groups and check the stats. You’ll see a lot of views and very few reads. By a lot, I mean 10–20 times more views than reads. They are all clicking and clapping, but none of them is actually reading.

I will count how many times this article gets rejected and let you know. It doesn’t matter how many times you fail if you manage to succeed. Just don’t quit too soon.